I am writing with respect to the proposed Ceduna Keys Marina development, which is subject to departmental assessment.

Murat Bay and Murat Bay shoreline area contain significant and irreplaceable cultural heritage, ecological and environmental
values for the local, state, national and international communities, and therefore are of invaluable economic importance to
the whole region, South Australia and Australia, and accordingly should be left in the unspoilt condition in which they exist
so as to maintain these values in viable perpetuity.

Two registered Aboriginal heritage sites are under direct threat from the development of the Marina.

One is an Aboriginal burial site / "cemetery ground", and the other is a unique fresh water soak.

Both are on the site of the proposed development.

It is essential to the continued maintenance of the cultural heritage of the local Aboriginal traditional owners, the Googatha
people, who are the custodians of these sites, that both of the registered sites must not be disturbed.

Also, the whole area is a significant national and internationally classified site for rare bird species such as the
Ruddy Turnstone, Sooty Oystercatcher and the Grey Plover.

Murat Bay is recognized by Birds Australia as a significant bird wading site.

The intertidal zone is a feeding ground and habitat for a large diversity of bird species.

There are some 128 different species, which have been recorded by birdwatchers, including rare and vulnerable species.

The development will inevitably cause a change in intertidal and sandbar ecosystems, which would disturb the more sensitive
of these, and numbers of rare and vulnerable species stand to be replaced by more common species, should the development of
the bay and area proceed with the construction of the Marina.

These ecological and environmental values substantiate that this is an area of significance that should be protected for
conservation purposes and for future generations to experience.

I am worried that the dredging in the bay and flats will increase sediment in the bay, thereby affecting fish feeding grounds
and breeding, which would have a negative impact on commercial and tourist fishing and the many oyster farms that constitute
an integral part of the Ceduna region economy.

For the reasons stated, I ask that the department's assessment process for the proposed Ceduna Keys Marina, either satisfactorily
account for, and justify in cultural, heritage and environmental terms, the inevitable eroding of these irreplaceable values,
or stop the development.